Reflecting on existential threats elicits self-reported negative affect but no physiological arousal

Abstract

There is mixed evidence whether reflecting on an existential threat increases negativeaffect and thereby elicits subjective arousal and physiological activation. Additionally,it is debated whether different existential and non-existential threats elicit differentarousal responses, although systematic comparisons are lacking. The current studyexplored affective, subjective, and physiological arousal responses while comparingseveral existential threats with a non-existential threat and with a control condition.One-hundred-and-seventy-one undergraduate students were randomly allocated toone of four existential threat conditions: mortality salience (MS), freedom restriction,uncontrollability, and uncertainty; or to the non-existential threat condition: socialevaluative threat (SET); or to a control condition (TV salience). Self-reportedpositive/negative affect was measured before and after reflection, while subjectivearousal and physiological activation (electrodermal, cardiovascular, and respiratory)were measured on a high time-scale during baseline and reflection. Results showedlarger increases in self-reported negative affect, as compared to the control condition,for all existential threat conditions, while there were no differences between thecontrol condition and threat conditions regarding positive affect, subjective arousal,skin conductance, respiratory rate, and respiratory sinus arrythmia. There were subtledifferences between existential and non-existential threat conditions, most notably inaffective responses. Correlations showed positive associations between negative affectand subjective arousal and between trait avoidance and subjective arousal. This studyis the first to systematically compare affective, subjective, and physiological changes inarousal due to reflecting on different existential threats, as well as one non-existentialthreat. We showed that, as compared to a control condition, reflecting on threats has alarge impact on negative affect, but no significant impact on positive affect, subjectivearousal, and physiological activation.